SOVIET UNION AND “SATELLITES”

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 114, 9 February 1944, Page 5

SOVIET UNION AND “SATELLITES”

British Journal’s View

(By Telegraph.—Press Assn.—Copyright.) (Special Correspondent.) LONDON, February 7.. Considerable interest is’being taken in the constitutional changes in Russia whereby each of the 16 constituent Republics is to have its own commissariats of Defence and Foreign Affairs, with the right to separate diplomatic representation. The suggestion that the Soviets desire to multiply their representation at the peace conference is generally dismissed.

The “Observer” expresses the opinion that the semi-independence granted to the present members of the Soviet Union may make little difference to them, blit will smooth the way for the accession of prospective new membefs. It is the declared purpose of the Soviet, he says; to absorb the Baltic States, Bessarabia, and the provinces which were taken from Poland in 1939 and from Finland iu 1940.

The treaty recently concluded between M. Molotov and Dr. Benes, the journal says, implies a far-reaching social and economic assimilation of Czechoslovakia to the Soviet, making Czechoslovakia a “satellite.” Dr. Benes and the Russians have made it clear that they would like Boland to do likewise. Entering the “realm of speculation,” the “Observer” says that there is nothing fantastic in the notion that some German people’s republic could be easily accommodated among the satellites. “More Exacting Demands.” . A Russian correspondent of the “Observer,” referring to the right of the various Republics to enter into direct relations with foreign States, says that while such treaties technically do not require counter-signature it-would not be possible for them to run counter to Moscow’s wishes. ' . “But Moscow will have new room.tactically to manoeuvre by not being formally bound by the diplomatic commitments and obligations of the new commissars,” he says. “By this move it is almost certain that the conflict between Poland and the Soviet has entered a new phase. Claims against Poland will be made by the Ukrainians an'd the Byelo-Russians. The Soviet Union as a whole will be only indirectly though no doubt decisively involved, and the Ukrainians and the Byelo-Russians will be much more exacting in their demands on Poland than even Moscow itself has been.”

The “Economist” says that for the moment these dramatic reforms can only be explained in terms of Russian foreign policy. “The Soviet armies have reached the Estonian border, and the future of the Baltic Republics must now be decided. Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania may be more willing to accept incorporation into the Soviet Union if they were given formal constitutional guarantees of wide autonomy. Similarly, there are settlements to be made with Poland and Finland. Claims against Poland can now be laid from Kiev, the seat of the Ukrainian Government, and from Minsk, the capital of Byelo-Russia. Claims against Finland can be raised by the Foreign Commissar of the KareloFinnish Republic, and claims against Rumania by the spokesman of Soviet Moldavia. Russian diplomacy will have more room to manoeuvre.”